Budget Friendly Silver Dollar City Restaurants

Lucky's Mine Restaurant Buffet

Is currently not open. 

But, when it is open, it's the least expensive buffet on the Park. And children under 4 eat free.  If you have very large eaters it will save money because everyone can get pretty full for the price of one meal. Or if you have a lot of kids under 4 eating free.

Lucky's is my absolute favorite buffet on the Park.  We love the roasted/smoked meat selections and lots of yummy vegetables. The Mac and cheese is great. So are the chicken fingers. And we normally don't even like chicken fingers or Macaroni and Cheese, especially out to eat.

It's also one of our favorite locations for ambiance. We like the low lighting (even though we usually don't care for low lighting at restaurants. The low lighting helps at Silver Dollar City to kind if decompress from the stimulantion all over the park), air conditioning in the summer, and heat in the winter. It's also usually not as packed as other restaurants in the park. And the magic table is super fun.

Molly's Mill - 

Children under 4 eat free. If you have very large eaters it will save money because everyone can get pretty full for the price of one meal. Or if you have a lot of kids under 4 eating free. 

We love the Breakfast Buffet at Molly's Mill. The biscuits and gravy, and Bacon are our absolute favorite. The eggs are also pretty good for a buffet. And we love all the fresh fruit, especially the watermelon. 

Lunch and Dinner are also great. The fried chicken and fried fish are delicious. Love the Broccoli Casserole too.

But, the real gems of Molly's are the waitresses. Some of the sweetest people you will ever meet.

And a nice bonus of the Buffets all three of them, Molly's Mill, Lucky's Mine and the Reunion Hall kids under 4 eat free.

Rivertown Smokehouse 

The Ribs, Brisket and Mac and Cheese are so very good. And I don't usually even like Macaroni and Cheese. Some of the best ribs and Brisket I have ever had in my life. Again brisket is something my husband and I always thought we didn't like, because most places sell extremely burnt, dried up Brisket. Not Silver Dollar City. It's perfectly smoked and tender and delicious. 

Most people can easily split the Meat Platter or 1/2 rack of ribs, or full rack of ribs if you're extra hungry, between 2 adults pretty well. Also comes with free pickles.

Also for myself, and I would gander the majority of women's appetites, the kids meal are plenty of food. The Pulled pork sandwich with Macaroni and Cheese, or I have a few teen girls who like to get the kids meal with the main entre being Mac and Cheese and the side being Macaroni and Cheese both, so they get two servings of Mac and cheese. Both those meals usually come with Apple sauce or fresh fruit. They are usually out of fresh fruit though so it's usually Apple sauce once in a while sliced apples are available. And you can have free sliced in house made Pickles. It's honestly usually plenty of food for us. Again especially if you may want a snack later on...or their delicious desserts. 

And my son with a large appetite, is usually happy with the kids meal Pulled pork sandwich with Tater Tots side. Also to note, the Tots are white potato and sweet potato Tots. He doesn't like the sweet potato Tots. So he asks them to only try to give him the white potato Tots and they try to do that for him. So if you have a child that don't like the sweet potato tots make sure to ask them to try to only give them the white potato ones, otherwise they will get a mix of both when they order the Tater Tots as a side.

Wagon Works Grill -

Turkey Legs 

In my opinion they have the very best Turkey Legs on the park. Much better than Buckshot's. And you can add Fries or baked beans for pretty inexpensive. Which helps stretch the turkey leg making it serve at least 2 people. Or if it's kids or smaller eaters you may be able to serve 3 to 4 small eaters with 1 turkey leg and a side.

We love the ambiance of Wagon Works. It's one of our favorite locations to eat, weather it's their actual food or our packed lunch. The Wagon is extra special to eat inside. But, I love the bottom floor by the fireplace. It's usually pretty empty down there. Cool and quiet in the summer. And love the warmth of the fireplace in the cold months.

Crossroads Pizza 

My kids love the Pizzas at Crossroads. My husband and I do not like pizza period. But for several years thought Crossroads was pretty good for pizza. They changed their crust in 2020. Our kids still love it. My husband and I, not so much. 

And you can buy like 1 large pizza for a small family, 2 large pizzas for a medium family, and the most we have ever had to buy was 3 large pizzas and that fed 14 of us. So it can sometimes save money to have one or a couple of Pizzas for the whole family to share.

Many people also love the skillets. In my opinion they are too large usually for 1 person...but not enough for 2 people. Lol so this is where my next tip begins. 

The Tasting Pass. The Tasting Pass, you pay one fee to get 5 items. It has many sample size options and a few full size portions. Generally the Skillet Meals are about a 2/3 size portion from the normal size. And perfect for 1 person. And that leaves you with 4 other choices to split with 1 other person...or to have later. We usually split 1 Tasting Pass with 2 people.

Keep a watch on my posts for current information on the most current Tasting Passport. I try to post portion sizes for each option on the Tasting Passport. 

Some are only a sample size. Others are full size and large enough to split between 2 people. While others are somewhere in between sample size and full size and just right for one person for a full meal. With more choices for a snack later on. Again when choosing the right options of portion sized choices on the Passport 2 people can be very satisfied for a full day of food at Silver Dollar City. Or one person can choose to use it for 2 days at Silver Dollar City. And end up really saving money and getting to try more things. 

However, beware, some people feel cheated it they only choose the tiny portion options on the Passport. So always check my posts for portion sizes you will get and pick the options you get the most bang for your buck with.

Cozi Family Planning

We love using the free Cozi app for planning our Branson vacations. 

A great bonus with this app is it's a family shared calander/planning app. You can add all the family members you want to be part of it by adding their email address and giving them the password. Then they can download the app and sign in. We find the free version is plenty for us. But, the paid version is not that expensive and you could split the cost if you wanted to.

I will warn though that anyone you add has administrative controls to the app. So they can add and delete family members or events. Because of this I would strongly suggest selecting a family leader or two to be in charge of adding events and family members. And being firm with the others to either not add events or family members without running it by the leaders and especially, under no circumstances, to delete events or family members without discussing it with the pre-selected leaders.

Also because of this if you are using this for a large extended family reunion or event, I would make a account for only these kinds of trips and if you want cozi for your normal personal and immediate family needs to make a second separate account. Plus you may not want your extremely extended/distant family seeing a your personal business. 

Thankfully, we haven't had any issues with this. And I only use it for my immediate family and close extended family that I trust explicitly, ie my mother in law, father in law, my own parents, and my siblings. And of course my husband and children. So I use my normal one. At the same time I usually only add my extended family for the duration of the trip, then delete them from the account the rest of the time. Lol

We love using Cozi because, I can plan everything hour by hour. And all members can see the exact itinerary at any moment. 

A tip I will give is more information in the event the better. Give the briefest, but most coherent title to the event. But, put exact location/address in the location. Put phone number, address and operating hours of all destinations in the notes section as well as any confirmation number that may need to be relayed at the event/destination. I find having all that information readily available in the event makes things so much easier and smoother. 

I like having the phone number and operating hours in the notes because sometimes the best laid plans get disturbed and go out the window. So if we start running late, I can quickly see the operating hours to see if we will still make it before closing and the phone number to call and ask if we can reschedule, or at least give them a heads up we are running late, if it was a pre-scheduled event. Extended family members can easily find the address this way and also call the venue and let them know the confirmation number and that while most the party may be there on time, they may be late. All this helps.

Going with the above, I highly suggest looking up each location 1 to 2 weeks before departure to make sure all addresses are current, call the phone numbers to make sure they are current and not defunct and everything is correct before you are actually there and scrambling realizing they moved or changed their number. And since 2020 making sure their operating hours are even correct. And the way things can get all twisted up, that if they have any reservations/confirmation numbers are correct.

Also my family are creatures of habit, and often go to the same places the same time of year every year. So I can have a lot of these events auto repeat every year. I especially likey grocery list for vacation to repeat because it's hard to remember everything we need and I don't want to end up back there 60 times. I always make it a pick up order. But, auto repeat, I have been able to keep track of exactly what we need. Eliminate things we didn't use and add things we forgot we would need. I also like keeping the address of any hotel we stay at. As some towns have several of the same kind of hotel, but different locations then the next year I can't remember which location it exactly was. I just tweak all the repeat events every year a couple of months before to make sure they are still wanted/needed and with current information.